Bellingham, WA
Bellingham, WA
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Grand Teton National Park
Our journey to the west began and ended in Grand Teton National Park outside of Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Rugged peaks, the youngest mountains in North America, pierced the brilliant blue sky; wildflowers dazzled us with swarms of color in the high mountain meadows; and an array of wildlife peered at us as we passed through their amazing ecosystem. After finding a beautiful camp site at the highly sought after Jenny Lake Campground we took off on an eighteen mile hike up Paintbrush Canyon and down Cascade Canyon. The hefty trek with over 3800 feet of elevation gain was well worth our efforts; this was probably the most stunningly beautiful scenery of the entire trip. Surprisingly, we found the trail relatively unpopulated until we began our hike down from Lake Solitude. Even in the busier areas, beauty and wildlife were abundant; we sighted our first moose on our way down and made it back to the car just before a gusty storm blew in.
On the way back from Yellowstone, we stopped back in Teton for a stunning, level hike around Two Ocean Lake. The lake area was in full bloom and we spotted swans, many ducks, and tons of berries which we were certain many bears would enjoy. After the low key hike we made our way to the Jenny Lake Marina where we rented a two-person kayak and chased after the wakes from the shuttles which ferried people across the lake. We would definitely enjoy spending more time in Grand Teton National Park, as we were only able to sample a small portion of what this area had to offer.
-- Molly & Brian Lawrence |
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Jackson, Wyoming was quite a transition from other towns in the area. Greatly influenced by its proximity to Grand Teton National Park, it is now one of the most expensive places to live in the area. Despite its touristy feel, the excellent restaurants in the town and fun shopping made it worth a brief visit. (But a brief visit is all we needed to know the parks were where we wanted to be.)
Our first night in the area we stopped in Jackson on our way to Grand Teton and found a great pizza restaurant (Mountain High Pizza Pie) which served an awesome Mexican pizza. It was topped with corn, salsa, black beans, scallions, tomatoes, and other awesome ingredients; we really liked it. On the way home, we once again stopped in Jackson to shower and look around a little. We found an entire store filled with stuffed animals from around the world. Bears, mountain lions, lions, tigers, and many other critters were stuffed and hanging on the wall, eventually being destined to end up on someone's wall. What a pity! According to the sales clerk, all of the animals were killed legally; Brian and I had our doubts. Regardless, it certainly gave us some insight into the hunting mentality which is prevalent in that section of the country; killing for sport is the name of the game. It was quite eye opening. Our final day in Jackson Hole was spent white water rafting. What a blast! Neither Brian nor I had been rafting in many years, so we really enjoyed the feeling of plunging down the river in a huge raft. We ended up being the lead paddlers, which meant that our job was to keep the rest of the boat paddling in synch with each other. Additionally, we were NOT supposed to stop paddling when we hit rapids; we discovered this was actually a great tactic for staying in the boat as well as keeping us headed in the right direction. When we came to a calm section of river, Brian, being the river otter he is, jumped out and took off for a swim. Being the devious husband he is, he quickly made his way back to the boat and yanked me overboard as well, not without the help of another passenger on the boat, however. We had a blast getting to be kids again! -- Molly & Brian Lawrence |
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From rugged peaks to boiling water oozing out of Earth's crust, and from iridescent mats of thermophilic bacteria and algae to the sulfuric odor which constantly permeated the air, Brian and I found ourselves constantly questioning, "Are we on another planet?" After all, where else on Earth do you look around and see steam pouring out of the ground, hear fumaroles blaring louder than jet engines, smell ungodly odors, and feel in awe of the very planet on which you live? Why the geological splendor in the middle of Wyoming? Scientists believe Yellowstone lies in the caldera of an enormous supervolcano which erupted thousands of years ago. Many of the surrounding mountains make up the rim of the caldera, and most of the hydrothermal features lie in the mouth of the caldera, which could one day erupt again. It seemed incomprehensible that we were really touring the mouth of a huge caldera until we visited Norris Geyser Basin, half of which was closed due to increased, highly unpredictable hydrothermal activity. Suddenly, the reality of our location and the amazing uncertainties associated with it sunk in.
One of the highlights for us was significantly enhancing our understanding of geological features; this was inevitable since Yellowstone contains a diversity of features in virtually every corner of the park. We spent an entire day in Geyser country and were lucky enough to see Old Faithful, Beehive, Grotto, and Riverside geysers erupting. Amazingly, geysers erupt for quite some time; Old Faithful only erupts for about ten minutes, but others erupt for well over thirty minutes. This section of the park is unique since the underlying rock is primarily rhyolite, an igneous rock which is hard enough to support a plumbing system filled with water under extremely high heat and pressure. Typically geysers have a constriction near the surface which keeps water from boiling until the temperature is extremely high, - hot enough to overcome the overlying pressure and come blasting out of the ground. Other hydrothermal features in the area were equally as amazing. The paint pots were filled with extremely acidic water that ate away at the rock below, resulting in caldrons of boiling mud; and fumaroles, which might have been geysers earlier in the season but were now low on water, blasted steam continuously and made quite a ruckus. Surprisingly, elk and bison seemed unconcerned with the Earth's drama, as they ambled around the dangerously hot features in search of foliage without a sprinkling of geyserite (silicon dioxide).
In contrast to geyser country, the Mammoth Terraces were a bit more serene. Instead of water blasting out of the ground at irregular intervals, water continuously poured out of the ground, creating large travertine terraces which increase in weight approximately 2 tons per day. Surprisingly, Mammoth is not located inside the Yellowstone Caldera or over the Yellowstone hot spot, which makes scientists wonder where all the superheated water comes from. They believe a fault in Earth's crust might connect Mammoth and Norris, supplying the terraces with hot water which takes many years (over 60) to travel the miles between the two locations.
Another contrast between the geyser basin and Mammoth is the lack of geysers at Mammoth due to the limestone underlying the area. Limestone, a sedimentary rock, is not sturdy enough to support superheated water under high pressures, so the water flows out of the ground continuously, depositing its calcium carbonate minerals across the land. Again, the dynamic nature of Earth was evident everywhere we went. At Mammoth, boardwalks which once were far from the water flow were virtually underwater, and large terraces which used to grow rapidly were dried up, void of the color from heat loving bacteria.
In addition to the geology, Yellowstone was filled with amazing fauna, which made themselves visible at dawn and dusk. Being slightly fanatic naturalists, we planned our schedule accordingly; virtually every morning before dawn and every evening before dusk we sought out a good spot for viewing wildlife. Fortunately, most of the tourists did not keep the same schedule as the wildlife like we did. Furthermore, most people stayed within 100 yards of the road, so we ran across many amazing critters on our long, unpopulated day hikes up Slough Creek, around Garnet Hill, and elsewhere. On our Slough Creek hike, we encountered a badger absorbed in his own thoughts running straight towards us on the trail. Flat to the ground and wiggling from side to side, it appeared he thought his masked face made him invisible to the world. All of a sudden, he stopped dead in his tracks, realizing we were not two newly planted trees on his familiar route, and, as quickly as he had been hustling towards us, reversed course and scrambled off into the brush. This encounter was one of many which were the highlight of our time in the park. Other fauna we observed while in Yellowstone include grizzly bears, pronghorns, moose, mountain goats, wolves, coyotes, bison, elk, mule deer, sandhill cranes, Uinta ground squirrels, and numerous birds of prey.
Some of the most memorable wildlife viewing was on the mornings we went to watch the wolves in the Lamar Valley. The National Park Service hires rangers to observe the wolves, which were reintroduced into the park in 1995; these individuals were always very willing to share their knowledge of the wolves as well as their spotting scopes, which were much nicer than our binoculars. Our first attempt at spotting wolves only resulted in a glimpse of one sleeping female about a mile away, but two mornings later, the entire pack of eighteen was out and about. Pups chased each other and tried, unsuccessfully most times, to get the adults to join in on the fun. Other members of the pack took it upon themselves to pester the herd of buffalo grazing nearby. (Wolves do not usually kill buffalo, or attempt it, because the large herd of gargantuate ungulates is very protective of each other and their young. Furthermore, they are excellent kickers and could seriously wound or kill a wolf with one kick.) By about eight o'clock, most of the wolves had retreated to the cover of the aspen grove behind them, attempting to escape from the heat of the day and find a hidden resting place. We learned a lot of fascinating information about wolves through our encounters with the rangers in the parks. Wolves have a well-established caste system in their packs; the top dogs (don't mind the cliché) are the alpha male and female, who hold their tail taller than others in the pack to show their strength and rank. Learning what it takes for a pack of wolves to make a living in Yellowstone was also quite interesting. Winter is by far the easiest time of year for the wolves. They prefer the cold and have huge paws, excellent for maneuvering in the snow. Furthermore, they have a large supply of food extremely close by in the winter, since many of the larger mammals in the park come down to the lower country for the winter. Just because the food is in close proximity, though, does not mean the wolves have an easy time surviving. It takes an entire pack to take down many of the large mammals and much energy is expended in the process. One ironic bit of information we learned about wolves was that despite their intimidating stature and appearance, wolves are quite terrified of humans. Having been exterminated by park rangers in the mid 1900's, wolves were finally reintroduced by the very species which wiped them out. In order to make the transition easier, the wolves were enclosed in a large fenced area for a few months so they would not try to return to Canada; once the door was finally opened for their release, the wolves refused to exit their enclosed area because humans had used the entrance they were supposed to exit from. It eventually took scientists cutting a hole in the chain link fence a good distance from the entrance before the wolves would leave their pen. It would be impossible to summarize all of the amazing experiences from our Yellowstone visit this summer, but these tidbits stood out above the others and will stick with us for a while. If you're ever going to be in the area and need some ideas of places to visit, let us know. We'd love to share our ideas with you. Also, we really enjoyed the geology descriptions in the Yellowstone Treasures: The Traveler's Companion to the National Park by Janet Chapple. -- Molly & Brian Lawrence
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In order to enjoy this day hike fully, you need to have a permit for collecting fossilized wood. Tom Miner Basin is filled with strange geological wonders, which our limited background did not allow us to enjoy fully. The basin has large mud flows with huge rocks embedded in them; strangely, the larger rocks are often found near the top of the rock and the smaller rocks near the bottom - the reverse of what one would expect. Scientists are not sure what caused this hot mud to flow through the area thousands of years ago, but as a result of the flow, large trees were engulfed in mud, which was hot, but usually not quite hot enough to burn them. Over time, minerals filled in between the wood cells, resulting in fossilization. Is the wood still present in the specimens collected? We were surprised to find that it is; if you used hydrofluoric acid to dissolve the minerals, the actual wood would still be present and could be cut and viewed under a microscope. Quite amazing! Equally as interesting were the entire trees we found embedded in the conglomerate rock, the beautifully formed crystals of quartz and other gemstones, and beautiful blue colored volcanic rock. Overall, it was a great hike; the signs along the way allowed us to gain a generalized understanding of what geology might have occurred in the area, and we took home a few wonderful specimens to share with the kids in Georgia. -- Molly & Brian Lawrence |
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Bishop, CA
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Charleston, IL
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